Xpedition provides support for Forever Living’s European rollout of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central
Highlights:
Rapid handover to Xpedition support enabled Forever Living to maintain its rollout schedule.
Agile and responsive support for day-to-day technical issues and change requests.
Experienced and skilled team supporting an ambitious deployment roadmap.
On-going knowledge transfer facilitating parallel implementation projects.
. .
About the organisation
Established in 1978, Forever Living Products is a multi-billion-dollar company that manufactures and sells hundreds of wellness and beauty products all around the world. It owns over 7,500 acres of aloe fields in Texas and the Dominican Republic, growing 40 million aloe vera plants each year that are harvested and shipped to its product manufacturing facilities.
Operating in over 160 countries worldwide, Forever Living is a multi-layered marketing organisation with its own manufacturing facilities, research and development, quality control laboratories and distribution channels.
The challenge
With its parent company in the US, Forever Living operates in Europe via independent legal entities. The organisation has been rolling out Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central as a common solution for the European entities, ensuring that the US parent is able to consolidate data via a single set of standardised, real-time interfaces. Individual Business Central solutions have been delivered with standard templates incorporating the minimum necessary local customisation. These templates have been deployed to entities in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
Immediately after the Switzerland go-live, Forever Living’s previous support partner announced a sudden departure from all Business Central operations, precipitating an urgent search for a replacement partner.
“We needed a new partner to provide day-to-day technical support and project-based support to keep our ambitious rollout roadmap on schedule. The partner would need to be large enough to provide the bandwidth required for our heavy workload but also specialised enough in the Business Central space to ensure effective solutions would be deployed for each new country.” Jan Bentvelzen, Manager, International Process and Innovation Projects at Forever Living.
Xpedition demonstrated the necessary expertise and capacity and has been delivering Business Central support for approximately to date.
Solution
Xpedition is providing both day-to-day technical support, reacting to issues and change requests raised by existing Business Central users and project support for the deployment roadmap. Current projects include implementations in Bulgaria, Romania (and Moldova), Slovenia and Hungary, with four Scandinavian countries and France, Spain and Portugal due to come on stream in 2025. The user base is projected to rise from approximately 50 to over 250 in the next 12-18 months. In addition, local partners are required in each location to deliver local language analysis and training.
Microsoft Dynamics Business Central provides an end-to-end enterprise solution for each legal entity, including sales and customer interfaces, finance and commissions, together with fulfilment, including logistics and warehousing where required. Business Central works seamlessly with Teams, Outlook and Office 365 with the ability to work from any location. Implementations are rapid and Forever Living’s business is future proofed with a scalable, secure solution trusted by over 40,000 small and mid-sized businesses.
“One of the advantages Business Central brings us and our parent company is the ability to easily budget the costs of each rollout project. There is little uncertainty involved, and minimal analysis required for each new location,” says Jan.
Forever Living is working with Xpedition to ensure that sufficient bandwidth is available from both organisations to support multiple implementations at the same time and to protect the schedule from the risks of relying on key individuals.
Jan continues, “With Xpedition’s support embedded in our organisation we are confident that issues are dealt with promptly and competently, and our ambitious deployment plans are secured going forward.”
Working with Xpedition
“We have an excellent relationship with Xpedition, who are supporting the work we are doing to future proof our business in Europe by continuing our rollout of Business Central across the continent. We look forward to developing our partnership in the future to implement a secure platform for growth.”
Jan Bentvelzen, Manager, International Process and Innovation Projects at Forever Living
Benefits
• Focus on Business Central expertise
Xpedition’s specialisation in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central brings significant benefits to Forever Living in terms of its expertise and experience with the chosen solution.
• Cultural fit and ways of working
Xpedition and Forever Living have rapidly developed an effective way of working that delivers a responsive and agile service covering both day-to-day and project support.
• Continuity of relationships
Xpedition’s team includes individuals from previous partner organisations who were involved in the original design of Business Central templates, bringing continuity of knowledge and expertise to the support capability.
• Rapid handover from previous partner
Xpedition provided a rapid and comprehensive handover from Forever Living’s previous partner, ensuring continuity of support and reduced risk of business disruption.
• Future proofed enterprise solution
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central provides a secure and stable platform for rapid deployment to new locations with minimal customisation and standardised interfaces for consolidation by Forever Living’s US parent.
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